Mei Re-Enabled in Overwatch 2 Season 1 Mid-Cycle Update

After a two-day delay, Blizzard Entertainment has released its mid-cycle update for Overwatch 2 in Season 1, nerfing a handful of heroes as promised, as well as adding Mei back to the lineup.

This patch should be a welcome sight for fans of Mei, who has been unavailable in-game for some time. On Oct. 31, Blizzard announced that they would be temporarily disabling Mei to address a bug with her Ice Wall ability. The bug in question allowed other heroes to reach unintended locations when Ice Wall was used in conjunction with their abilities.

Here's a breakdown of the full Overwatch 2 Season 1 Mid-Cycle Patch Notes.

Overwatch 2 Season 1 Mid-Cycle Patch Notes

Here are the official adjustments Blizzard has made in this patch:

General Updates

Competitive Play and Matchmaking

• Made numerous tuning adjustments on the server for both the initial and continued determination of a player's skill tier and division, many of which will become even more noticeable at the start of Season 2
• Increased the precision of our queue time estimates for each individual role in role queue

Defense Matrix

• Audio transcription feature has been added with a limited rollout for PC players in select countries, allowing us to analyze a transcript from a temporary voice chat recording of a reported player

Crossplay and Aim Assist

• If you play in a Crossplay game (PC + Console) now, Aim Assist is enabled in all matches except Competitive

Hero Updates

D.Va

• Fusion Cannon spread increased from 3.5 to 3.75
• Boosters impact damage reduced from 25 to 15
• Call Mech ultimate cost reduced by 12% (Fixed in last update)

Zarya

• Particle Barrier duration reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds
• Particle Barrier cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds
• Projected Barrier duration reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds
• Projected Barrier cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds

Genji

• Maximum ammo reduced from 30 to 24
• Shuriken damage reduced from 29 to 27

Sombra

• Hack ability lockout duration reduced from 1.75 to 1.5 seconds
• Hacked enemies are no longer valid targets for hacking for the duration of the 8-second effect
• Hacked damage multiplier reduced from 40 to 25%

Kiriko

• Swift Step invulnerability duration reduced from 0.4 to 0.25 seconds

Junkrat

• Arming time increased from 0.5 to 0.75 seconds (Fixed in last update)
• Trapped duration reduced from 3 to 2.5 seconds (Fixed in last update)

General Bug Fixes

• The Default setting for audio mix has been changed to "studio reference" (PC only)
• Resolved an issue where some players could be stuck in Bronze 5 even after several rank updates
• Fixed an issue where the PC interface was being forced on for some console players (Console Only)
• Fixed a bug on console where your game could freeze if you opened and closed a Hero cinematic (Console Only)
• Fixed an issue where 'Capture Highlight' could not be unbound from Left D-Pad (Console Only)
• Addressed multiple leaderboard issues causing inaccurate placement and ordering
• Players who getting healed will no longer see the healing status effect on their screen while they’re full health
• Fixed an issue where players would sometimes be placed into an empty game
• Resolved a bug that prevented players from rejoining their competitive game after being disconnected
• Fixed a bug where typing in chat could purchase an item from the Hero Gallery
• The "No Name Card" selection in the Name Card interface is now selectable
• Fixed a display issue where players were shown the incorrect amount of Overwatch League tokens, which made them unable to purchase items. The display now shows the correct amount of tokens a player owns
• The "Avoid Teammates" button is no longer hiding behind the Recent Players list
• Fixed an issue with the Challenge "Farsighted" not correctly tracking and/or completing
• Fixed an issue with the Challenge "Damage Sponge" not correctly tracking and/or completing
• Resolved instances of the player's screen becoming blurry/out of focus
• Fixed an issue where some players were missing the Noire Widowmaker skin
• Various visual improvements to the First Time User Experience
• Practice bots now show up through walls correctly when you play a healer (Fixed in last update)

Map Bug Fixes

Junkertown

• Fixed additional areas in the map that were causing performance issues in some cases

Hero Bug Fixes

Brigitte

• Fixed a bug where Brigitte's shield could become invulnerable under certain conditions

Cassidy

• Cassidy now correctly drops the flag during Combat Roll in the Capture the Flag game mode

Doomfist

• Fixed a bug with Seismic Slam being stopped early by obstructions (Fixed in last update)
• Fixed a bug with being able to jump during Seismic Slam (Fixed in last update)

Genji

• Fixed an issue with the Genji Mythic Skin's hit volumes
• Fixed an issue where players could get infinite Dragonblade Custom Games (Fixed in last update)

Hanzo

• Jump/wall climb no longer destroys breakables (Fixed in last update)

Junker Queen

• Commanding Shout and Rampage now correctly drop the flag in the Capture the Flag game mode

Kiriko

• Fixed an issue where Kiriko could escape map boundaries using Swift Step

Mei

• Has been added back to the line-up
• Fixed several issues with Mei's Ice Wall that allowed players and projectiles to occasionally pass through it or slip off it

Mercy

• Audio made a change to the sound of Mercy’s first-person glide to address frequencies that some players found uncomfortable

Reinhardt

• Fixed an issue where quick melee did not swing Reinhardt's hammer (Fixed in last update)

Sojourn

• Sojourn can no longer pick up the flag in Capture the Flag when using Power Slide

Sombra

• EMP can no longer be damage boosted (Fixed in last update)

Torbjorn

• Fixed an issue where quick melee did not swing Torbjorn's hammer (Fixed in last update)

Wrecking Ball

• Fixed an issue with Adaptive Shield that could cause you to lose health in some cases